In Zambia, Pastor Andoni Phiri explains his community’s transformation — and how it all began with a book called Jesus the Source of Living Water.
Pastor Andoni, 51, has been in the community of Hamaundu in southern Zambia for three years. He is the district evangelist with 50 churches under his administration. The father of eight has seen World Vision do much in this area.
“I’ve seen them empower people through educating them to be able to run their own homes financially. I’ve seen them handle issues of HIV and AIDS through Channel of Hope,” Pastor Andoni says. “I was trained in that. It has helped my church. We have been able to bring people closer to the church. Those who were HIV positive who weren’t able to come to the church now come to the church. They have gone into child evangelism through the WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) program. There’s a book they have been using to teach. (Jesus The Source of Living Water). I am on the team translating that book into Tonga. I was in Lusaka for two weeks. Doing the final translation. In the coming two weeks it should come out as people do the printing. We are itching to get that into our hands. It is a wonderful book. Our district bishop was amazed when he heard me preach the materials …
“This book, when we started teaching it, helped us with children. We used to send the children out of chapel to preach and they would just play around. The children now have something to do. We have children who can memorize verses. They tell their parents they are supposed to boil the water they are drinking. Children even know how to clean the area around the boreholes.”
